One Simple Tip That Will Guarantee Quality Time With Your Kids

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Life is busy, so finding quality time to spend with your kids each day can be a challenge. This one simple trick will help even the busiest families carve out time for their children.We live in an increasingly busy society.

It used to be that when we asked someone how he or she was doing the answer would be “fine”. Nowadays the response is more likely to be ‘busy’. Do you find yourself saying that? I know I do.

As Jeff Shinabarger notes in his short video, the word busy seems to have replaced the word fine.

The trap of busyness

There always seems to be so much to do. We have many different things competing for our time and attention on a daily basis. There are errands to run, places to be, and extra-curricular activities to fit into our overcrowded schedules. On top of that are the endless demands of our work and households.

The “to-do” lists get longer by the day and can be almost tyrannical in their demands. As a consequence it can be really easy to put off connecting with our families.

You might catch yourself saying I just need to:

respond to this one e-mail.

clean the house.

mow the lawn.

finish my presentation.

put on one load of laundry.

Before you know it another day has gone by and you realize you’ve done all kinds of things except spend meaningful time with your family.

To make matters worse, if you are anything like me you still have things on that wretched list that didn’t get done yet.

The work will always be there, but your children will not

Before you can blink an eye your kids will be grown and venturing out into the world on their own, as you desperately try to figure out where on earth the time went.

As someone who has raised three children and seen them into adulthood I want to share with you what I learned.

It could change your family’s life.

How to find quality time with your kids

Recently I learned one simple phrase that has the power to help us push aside the demands of the day, so we can concentrate on the things like family relationships.

That phrase is “Good enough for today.”

If used well it will drown out the voice of our inner critics and help us overcome the drive for perfection.

Imagine how you can use this phrase in your everyday life

The items I have crossed off my to-do list are good enough for today.

My house and garden are good enough for today.

The work I have done on my presentation, website, blog, book (insert your current project) is good enough for today.

The phone calls I have made are good enough for today.

The number of e-mails I have written is good enough for today.

Do you see how powerful those words are? Imagine using the phrase “good enough for today” in your daily life. It immediately helps you slap a muzzle on your to-do list so you can play with your children and spend quality time with your family instead.

Comments

Love this! This is so important. Get off the ‘perfect’ ride and get on the ‘good enuf’ one. Many of us are perfectionists or ‘recovering’ perfectionists and this is hard but we must work at it. It will eliminate so much excess stress and frustration.
There’s an exercise I learned in my positive psychology class exactly on this concept. List the few areas in our life that are most important. Create 2 columns, the first being Perfect Life and the second being, Good Enough Life. For each area write down what would be ideal/perfect in the first column and what would be good enough in the second column. For instance ideally I might want to exercise 5 mornings a week but that’s a bit hard and then I set myself up for disappointment and frustration so I write in my other column to exercise 3 mornings a week as good enough.
And then there’s my all time favorite quote by Voltaire: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Thanks for a great post, Sharon.

This is so very true and something that I’ve been trying to remind myself during some recent changes. I have always strived for things to be perfect, but good enough is just as good if it means time with family.

Sharon,
Thank you for this beautiful post. So much truth in the way we’ve become used to saying “Busy” instead of fine, as if how busy we are doing defines us. It doesn’t. And we shouldn’t be held hostage to being busy, either.

Trackbacks

[…] demands of the to do list by setting it aside- realize that what you have accomplished so far is good enough for today. Instead of focusing on getting it all done go and enjoy some time with your children. I must […]

[…] It is my list that keeps things ticking over nicely. Many days I will do more than my essentials, but if I can’t that is okay. I can rest in the knowledge that what I have done is good enough for today. […]

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LOOKING FOR FUN FAMILY ACTIVITIES THAT WILL FIT YOUR SCHEDULE?

Take the FREE 7 day play activity challenge and you will discover

Simple activities that you can do immediately.

How to have fun and make memories in only 15 minutes a day.

The benefits of spending short periods of time with your kids.

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